I'm Marcy Lautanen-Raleigh growing herbs is a passion I've had for more than 20 years now. The Backyard Patch is my own herb business started in 1995. I specialize in fresh, amazing, organic blended herbs. Those for cooking, tea and bath -- and they are all home-grown and hand-blended. In the last 20 years I have gained a knowledge of herbs and their flavors that I share here.

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Monday, March 12, 2018

Not all Herbs are created Equal

When
choosing herbs to go into your garden or herb garden you must recognize that
not all herbs are the same.They need
different growing conditions, they have different habits, they even come in
different colors. For the most part all herbs need full sun which is defined as 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day, they enjoy a well-drained soil with a moderate amount of water. Herb as weed-like so they can survive less than perfect conditions by growing more slowly or producing less leaves and flowers. However, some actually thrive in different conditions, so it helps you know your plants a bit better. I am going to present few terms you might find in books or on seed packets and what that means to growing certain herbs.

Annuals

Some herbs are annuals, these herbs are not cold hardy and have a single season growing
habit that produces flowers and seeds for next year.Many, like dill, have seed you can use to
cook with as well as the leaves.However,
these plants are always trying to make seed so harvesting and cutting flowers
off will increase their size and deter their natural habit. Chervil,
summer savory, any basil, cilantro, and dill are all annuals, but are easily
grown from seed sown directly into the garden patch.

Dill
– sow seeds bi-weekly for a continuous crop of this annual, giving you leaves
and seeds to use in cooking.

Fennel - bronze Fennel is pretty with darker leaves than it green cousin and it is an annual you can grow easily from seed. Here it looks great flanked by Swiss Chard

Hardy Perennials

Some
are hardy perennials, these will come back year after year producing many branches
to be cut and used or dried. They sprout early and sometimes depending on the weather you can actually get a hefty harvest in April even in the colder north. Mints, lavender, catnip, lemon balm, oregano, all are hardy perennials.

Apple Mint

Pineapple Mint

Mints
– you can enjoy the many sub species to get different flavors, like Orange
Mint, Mojito Mint, Chocolate Mint or Lemon Mint.

Tender Perennial

Tender
perennials can come back year after year, but generally are not hardy
below 32 degrees so if you live in the north you treat them as an annual or
bring them in for winter, but in the south you may, with protection, be able to winter them over. Examples of a tender perennial include, rosemary, scented geraniums, pineapple sage, bay laurel and marjoram.

Marjoram -- is a tender perennial and many
people grow it as an annual and harvest it to the ground before the first frost
in the fall.

Biennial

parsley

Between tender and hardy perennials are the biennials. These are herbs that come up a second year, but in that second year they are planning to flower and produce seed and not much else. Many, like parsley and angelica, become less tasty during the second year and are often grown as annuals.

Parsley - this leafy plant grows in whorls close to the ground, but sprouts into a stock in the second year when producing seed.

Woody ShrubWoody
shrubs are herbs with a strong woody stem and can be grown in the
landscape as a shrub or in the herb garden as a perennial.These would include sage, winter savory and
even the tender perennial lemon verbena. Some people consider lavender a woody shrub because it is often grown as a hedge, but the stems rarely get woody.

Common Garden Sage

Sage is attractive and comes in several varieties including purple and tri color, however the colored varieties are not as hardy as the original.

Some
herbs love a dry area, like thyme which works great in a path or a rock garden.

thyme in a stone walkway

You can also enjoy some great varieties here,
with creeping thyme that has a great pink/purple flower; or variegated lemon
thyme that adds color and other thyme varieties with different shades of green
or white highlights like silver thyme, or Wedgewood thyme.

Golden Thyme

variegated lemon thyme

A
few herbs even like wetter conditions, like Marsh Mallow or Meadowsweet.

Marsh
Mallow - This bog dweller sends up tall
spikes of lovely pink flowers and stately foliage. Reaching up to 6 feet in
height, marsh mallow prefers full sun. Its seeds, flowers and leaves are
edible, and yes its root is used to make marshmallows

Meadowsweet
- Meadowsweet’s frothy cream-colored
flowers and fragrant leaves are very useful. The plants grows 2 to 6 feet tall
and is happy in moist or wet soil, in sun or part shade.